{"id":49905,"date":"2017-12-15T05:38:42","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T12:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=49905"},"modified":"2025-09-13T14:16:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T19:16:40","slug":"focusing-on-male-common-goldeneyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/12\/15\/focusing-on-male-common-goldeneyes\/","title":{"rendered":"Focusing On Male Common Goldeneyes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CommonCommon Goldeneye male diving – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

After spending many hours traveling in the West Desert in search of birds yesterday my best birds of the day were photographed just a few blocks from home in the late afternoon. The numbers of Common Goldeneyes had increased again slightly on my local pond and I could even see a few more females mixed in with the adult and first winter males. Most of the Common Goldeneyes stayed on the other side of the pond but a few came in closer and I focused on them. I enjoy photographing these diving ducks as they are about to dive and relish capturing them with just the tips of their bills in the water as they plunge their heads in first.<\/p>\n

\"DuckDuck Tail – Common Goldeneye – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday I photographed quite a few of their tails before they slipped under the water and I actually enjoyed some of the resulting photos because of the great reflections…<\/p>\n

\"CommonCommon Goldeneye drake diving for food – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The symmetry of their tails…<\/p>\n

\"CommonCommon Goldeneye tail flinging water – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

And how the water droplets were flung off of their tails as they dove down to look for prey. This image in particular delighted me because the water looks like long, blue strings at the tips of almost all of the tail feathers. I’m not sure I have ever seen this watery string-like effect occur before when photographing goldeneyes diving.<\/p>\n

\"DrakeDrake Common Goldeneye after surfacing – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve found that it is hard to predict where and when a Common Goldeneye will surface after a dive, sometimes you can see air bubbles coming to the on the surface when they are underwater but usually they surface well ahead of the air bubbles and they can stay under water for quite some time.<\/p>\n

I hope one day to capture one of the adult males right as it surfaces with a sheet of water still covering his iridescent green head which I’ve done before with a first winter drake<\/span><\/a> at Farmington Bay WMA.<\/p>\n

\"CommonCommon Goldeneye male shaking his wings – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 500, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I also felt fortunate to photograph this drake Common Goldeneye as he shook and flapped his wings because it showed the broad white patches on the dorsal side of his wings.<\/p>\n

\"Wing-flappingWing-flapping drake Common Goldeneye – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 500, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

And how much of his body was out of the water while his wings flapped.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Common Goldeneye flapping his wings – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 500, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I caught the wings extended in front of the bird several times and of those liked this photo the most. What’s not to like about this great pose?<\/p>\n

\"CommonCommon Goldeneye male shaking it up – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 500, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

As the drake was nearing the end of his wing flapping session his wings were not fully extended and were closer to his body and his chest also seemed more rounded and less stretched out.<\/p>\n

\"DrakeDrake Common Goldeneye shaking water off his head – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 500, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

And just before he settled back down on the water he shook his head and water went flying. I really enjoyed watching and photographing this drake’s wing flapping session yesterday afternoon especially since he was close enough to capture plenty of fine details in his plumage and to have enough shutter speed to freeze not only the motion of his wings but the water droplets too.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Common Goldeneye in a spot of light – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I included this photo today because I liked how it seemed that there was a spotlight on the male goldeneye and the water he was swimming on plus I liked the multiple reflections of this bird’s eye.<\/p>\n

\"CommonCommon Goldeneye Threat Display – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

From quite a distance I noticed this Common Goldeneye drake’s Threat Display behavior and hoped that I would see some interaction between him and another drake…<\/p>\n

\"FightingFighting male Common Goldeneyes – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

And I did… when he and another drake that was close to him dove under the water at the same time facing towards each other they came to the surface already fighting, stirring up the water and chasing after each other. I only wish that they had been a little bit closer while they were fighting as both of these last two images were cropped more than I like to crop but I wanted to include at least one of the Common Goldeneye fight photos I took yesterday.<\/p>\n

I spent fifty-five minutes primarily focusing on male Common Goldeneyes yesterday afternoon and I am very happy with the images I took of these beautiful diving ducks. I’m looking forward to spending more time with them this winter.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Common Goldeneye photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spent fifty-five minutes primarily focusing on male Common Goldeneyes yesterday afternoon and I am very happy with the images I took of these beautiful diving ducks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,962,709,26],"tags":[4226,4238,4520,4159,4753,6230,1129,126,4337,4062,4502,6285,3536,2063,3200],"class_list":["post-49905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-common-goldeneyes","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-behavior","tag-bucephala-clangula","tag-common-goldeneye","tag-diving","tag-diving-ducks","tag-drakes","tag-duck","tag-ducks-2","tag-fighting","tag-male","tag-shaking","tag-tail","tag-threat-display","tag-waterfowl","tag-wing-flapping"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-male-flapping-mia-mcpherson-3991.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-cYV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":118604,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/11\/28\/first-of-season-common-goldeneye\/","url_meta":{"origin":49905,"position":0},"title":"First Of Season Common Goldeneye","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 28, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Three days ago, I found my first-of-season Common Goldeneye drake at my local pond. I didn't have my camera with me, so I wasn't able to photograph him.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Drake Common Goldeneye settling down, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/common-goldeneye-drake-winter-mia-mcpherson-7243.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/common-goldeneye-drake-winter-mia-mcpherson-7243.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/common-goldeneye-drake-winter-mia-mcpherson-7243.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/common-goldeneye-drake-winter-mia-mcpherson-7243.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":108781,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/12\/16\/immature-male-common-goldeneye-and-catfish\/","url_meta":{"origin":49905,"position":1},"title":"Immature Male Common Goldeneye And Catfish","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 16, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"On this day two years ago, I photographed this immature male Common Goldeneye with a catfish at the pond in my neighborhood. It was a chilly, wintry afternoon.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature male Common Goldeneye with a catfish, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/common-goldeneye-drake-young-catfish-mia-mcpherson-1547.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/common-goldeneye-drake-young-catfish-mia-mcpherson-1547.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/common-goldeneye-drake-young-catfish-mia-mcpherson-1547.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/common-goldeneye-drake-young-catfish-mia-mcpherson-1547.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11917,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/12\/15\/a-first-winter-common-goldeneye-male\/","url_meta":{"origin":49905,"position":2},"title":"First winter Common Goldeneye male","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Common Goldeneyes are diving sea ducks that over winter in the Salt Lake Valley where I see and photograph them at Bear River National Wildlife Refuge, along the causeway to Antelope Island State Park and at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"First Winter Male Common Goldeneye in an icy pond, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-icy-water-mia-mcpherson-7334.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-icy-water-mia-mcpherson-7334.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-icy-water-mia-mcpherson-7334.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-icy-water-mia-mcpherson-7334.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":75597,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/11\/29\/landing-drake-common-goldeneye\/","url_meta":{"origin":49905,"position":3},"title":"Landing Drake Common Goldeneye","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm anxious to start photographing the ducks I see close to home during the winter here in the Salt Lake Valley and from what I understand a few Common Goldeneyes have shown up.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Landing adult drake Common Goldeneye, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/common-goldeneye-drake-landing-mia-mcpherson-5921.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/common-goldeneye-drake-landing-mia-mcpherson-5921.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/common-goldeneye-drake-landing-mia-mcpherson-5921.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/common-goldeneye-drake-landing-mia-mcpherson-5921.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":109770,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/01\/22\/1st-winter-common-goldeneye-drake-with-a-crawdad\/","url_meta":{"origin":49905,"position":4},"title":"1st Winter Common Goldeneye Drake With A Crawdad","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 22, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Just a quick post this morning of a photo of a 1st winter Common Goldeneye drake with a crawdad in his bill at my neighborhood pond taken last year.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"1st winter Common Goldeneye drake with a crawdad, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/common-goldeneye-drake-first-winter-crawdad-mia-mcpherson-2757.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/common-goldeneye-drake-first-winter-crawdad-mia-mcpherson-2757.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/common-goldeneye-drake-first-winter-crawdad-mia-mcpherson-2757.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/common-goldeneye-drake-first-winter-crawdad-mia-mcpherson-2757.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":61846,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/12\/02\/why-do-these-drake-common-goldeneyes-look-different\/","url_meta":{"origin":49905,"position":5},"title":"Why Do These Drake Common Goldeneyes Look Different?","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Both of these drake Common Goldeneyes were photographed on January 7, 2018, but they don't look quite the same.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult drake Common Goldeneye side view, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/common-goldeneye-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-3509.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/common-goldeneye-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-3509.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/common-goldeneye-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-3509.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/common-goldeneye-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-3509.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}